Giesecke & Devrient India opened a new personalization facility for EMV smart cards in Chennai, which, when fully staffed, will employ around 85 people. This high-tech investment is to solidify G&D’s success in India.

The Chennai branch will offer Indian banks and financial institutions a comprehensive range of services to help achieve the complex migration from cards equipped with magnetic stripes to highly secure modern smart cards. The personalization facility in Chennai began operating in August 2012, and has already received Visa and MasterCard certification. In addition to servicing the Indian market, the Chennai branch will make its extensive high-tech capabilities available also to neighboring countries.
Among the most important services G&D India is offering in Chennai are end-to-end EMV solutions, which are based on open standards and can be tailored to fit specific national rules as well as particular customer requirements. A successful transition toward using smart payment cards involves solutions in a number of areas, including key management, data management, personalization, fulfillment, system integration, project management, and technical consulting.Colin Mayne, Managing Director, G&D India: “Safe, smart payment cards are the way of the future. Especially in growth markets like India’s, where innovation is highly prized, it is important that we are able to offer our full range of modern solutions at the local level. The new personalization facility in Chennai, whose inauguration we celebrated today, plays a significant role in this strategy.”
G&D has many years of experience successfully supporting EMV migration projects around the world. The latest example of the many ambitious contracts G&D has realized for its clients in India over the years is the successful EMV project carried out for HDFC Bank. In recent years, G&D also supported the Reserve Bank of India’s Clean Note Policy by supplying high-performance banknote processing systems; the majority of Indian banks now use such systems. In addition, G&D operates a research and development facility in Pune which plays a key role in the company’s worldwide technological leadership.